Is Quitting My Job Really The Answer?

photo by John Charalambous

Emily Gerson quit her job. Lea Woodward gave me the tips to live Location Independent. Even Dell launched a new site, Digital Nomads, celebrating working on the go. And don't even get me started about the Gen-Y fantasy of the 4-Hour Work Week (best read in a long time).

But, do I really want all that?

Cutting loose from the day job and working remotely, from home or for a start-up has been my goal since my first day in the cube. Heck, I've run record labels, recording studios, promotion companies, real estate investments and then some before coming across Internet Marketing, Social Media and thoughts of consulting.

Do I really want it though?

Some nights when my wife is watching Friends and playing BeJeweled on the couch, I think about wanting to be doing just that. Living more freely and having the schedule and flexibility to give her the time she deserves. Working in bed with a little bed lamp till 2 in the morning is not my idea of being young and having fun.

Jen tells me to keep at it, even though I can sense that our not seeing each other till happy hour on Friday bothers her immensely.

WE want this lifestyle, right?

I know that Jen wants to travel but maybe not in the let's go to Thailand for 3 months, get a tan, break out the laptop and study Tae-Kwon-Do type of travel that is floating around in my head. But that's where my head is at right now.

I want a more remote and free lifestyle, so what is stopping me?

Well, life is. I have great friends, enjoy my weekends, have a small family and well, love my profession. When the time is right, I will move on and have the business that I always wanted. In the meantime I will continue to find projects that have meaning to me in the hopes that one will become my lifestyle, and I will be up and ready for corporate life at 8am until the situation changes.

Sometimes living in the moment is more important than planning for the future.
Sometimes living in the moment is planning for your future.
Other times, its just going out on the weekends for a beer.

Someday soon though I will be surfing on Monday morning in Costa Rica, catching up with email whenever and wherever, then heading to Dubai for a meeting before the week is over. It's coming, just not today.

-Greg Rollett
(This post came from reading a lot of fun things over the web and in paperback format and posts at Brazen Careerist that always gets me thinking, so it's what I was pondering for the past few days, more Socially Mediated stuff tomorrow, maybe!)